Sacred Plaza

This guide to the Sacred Plaza at Machu Picchu opens on the three trapezoidal windows cut into a single granite wall, all facing sunrise, and Hiram Bingham's 1911 guess that they mark the mythical origin of the first Inca, Manco Capac. It follows the wrinkle in that theory, and the plaza's true builder, the emperor Pachacuti, who raised it around 1450 as the ceremonial heart of his royal retreat, ringed by the Principal Temple and the House of the Priest. Look down at the joints beneath your feet before you look up at the windows.